Ok...here goes...something... Rossetti and Her Guilt
Rossetti grew up in an Anglo-Catholic home, and at one point was said to suffer from “religious mania” due to her depth of faith. Rossetti worked for the House of Charity, an organization run by nuns, and her sister worked in the church as well. She was part of the Anglican Sisterhood, a group known for their support of a movement whose goal was to liberate women from their male-dependency. Religion was much like poetry as a channel which women could profess their opinions without persecution (“Victorian Poetry: Poets in Context”).
To begin, Anglo-Catholics believed in a doctrine that supported the development of piety, “instilling pastoral devotion, stirring up missionary zeal, and recovering the beauty of worship.” The belief was not just a philosophy or thought process, it was considered the only life. This is helpful background material as we begin to discuss “The Convent Threshold.” When I read the first stanza, I thought this might have something to do with her backing out of her marriage after her betrothed returned to Roman Catholicism. Since she was raised Anglo-Catholic, the “blood” that is “a bar I cannot pass” becomes one reason she breaks the marriage up. “I choose the stairs that mount above.” Rossetti is choosing the Anglo-Catholic way, toward enlightenment or piety. Jumping to the next stanza we see a similar comparison, of “Your eyes look earthward, mine look up,” meaning a separation of the two divisions. Anglo-Catholicism is seen as a delineation from Catholicism in general, and Rossetti herself was extremely devout.
The “convent threshold” I see is autobiographical of Rossetti’s turn to ministry and diving deeper into her work with the church. “How should I rest in Paradise…Should I not answer from my throne?” She desires salvation and communion above all else.
I’ll be honest, as the poem progresses beyond the seventh stanza I have a difficult time continuing this autobiographical analysis of Rossetti. She sees a “spirit with transfigured face” thirsting for the light, that “grovel(s)” at the “Seraph’s feet.” The seraph is a celestial being, or a “burning one”—an angel. After doing some additional research, I found a Biblical passage that discusses the Seraph in a dream, much like the Rossetti narrator. Isaiah 6:1-8
Isaiah's Vision of the Lord In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”[b] And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
The narrator of “The Convent Threshold” has a dream similar to Isaiah’s vision of the Lord. The spirit the narrator sees that yells “Give me light” mimics the “Holy, holy, holy” repetition of Isahia's seraphim. This spirit has suggestive “devil” qualities, “locks writhed like a cloven snake.” The Seraph in the Bible is seen to forgive sins, yet the narrator doesn’t mention any of her sins, but rather the knowledge.
So, what does this mean? I don’t actually know. I see that the narrator might have some type of guilt while dreaming, or maybe she feels guilt for her betrothed soul, that he will not be able to reach the similar heaven.
She definitely feels guilt (or shame, or the need for repentance) for her love-feelings toward him still, “For all night long I dreamed of you: I woke and prayed against my will.” Here it really sounds like she feels guilty for her continual attachment: feelings of love, of passion, maybe even her sexual-desire for him. Then, the Convent Threshold would be seen as a passageway out of her almost-marital love into a spiritual love.
Rossetti grew up in an Anglo-Catholic home, and at one point was said to suffer from “religious mania” due to her depth of faith. Rossetti worked for the House of Charity, an organization run by nuns, and her sister worked in the church as well. She was part of the Anglican Sisterhood, a group known for their support of a movement whose goal was to liberate women from their male-dependency. Religion was much like poetry as a channel which women could profess their opinions without persecution (“Victorian Poetry: Poets in Context”).
To begin, Anglo-Catholics believed in a doctrine that supported the development of piety, “instilling pastoral devotion, stirring up missionary zeal, and recovering the beauty of worship.” The belief was not just a philosophy or thought process, it was considered the only life. This is helpful background material as we begin to discuss “The Convent Threshold.” When I read the first stanza, I thought this might have something to do with her backing out of her marriage after her betrothed returned to Roman Catholicism. Since she was raised Anglo-Catholic, the “blood” that is “a bar I cannot pass” becomes one reason she breaks the marriage up. “I choose the stairs that mount above.” Rossetti is choosing the Anglo-Catholic way, toward enlightenment or piety. Jumping to the next stanza we see a similar comparison, of “Your eyes look earthward, mine look up,” meaning a separation of the two divisions. Anglo-Catholicism is seen as a delineation from Catholicism in general, and Rossetti herself was extremely devout.
The “convent threshold” I see is autobiographical of Rossetti’s turn to ministry and diving deeper into her work with the church. “How should I rest in Paradise…Should I not answer from my throne?” She desires salvation and communion above all else.
I’ll be honest, as the poem progresses beyond the seventh stanza I have a difficult time continuing this autobiographical analysis of Rossetti. She sees a “spirit with transfigured face” thirsting for the light, that “grovel(s)” at the “Seraph’s feet.” The seraph is a celestial being, or a “burning one”—an angel. After doing some additional research, I found a Biblical passage that discusses the Seraph in a dream, much like the Rossetti narrator. Isaiah 6:1-8
Isaiah's Vision of the Lord
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”[b]
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
The narrator of “The Convent Threshold” has a dream similar to Isaiah’s vision of the Lord. The spirit the narrator sees that yells “Give me light” mimics the “Holy, holy, holy” repetition of Isahia's seraphim. This spirit has suggestive “devil” qualities, “locks writhed like a cloven snake.” The Seraph in the Bible is seen to forgive sins, yet the narrator doesn’t mention any of her sins, but rather the knowledge.
So, what does this mean? I don’t actually know. I see that the narrator might have some type of guilt while dreaming, or maybe she feels guilt for her betrothed soul, that he will not be able to reach the similar heaven.
She definitely feels guilt (or shame, or the need for repentance) for her love-feelings toward him still, “For all night long I dreamed of you: I woke and prayed against my will.” Here it really sounds like she feels guilty for her continual attachment: feelings of love, of passion, maybe even her sexual-desire for him. Then, the Convent Threshold would be seen as a passageway out of her almost-marital love into a spiritual love.